There’s potential for collaboration when designers and FOSS maintainers work together on contributions. While designers want to contribute to FOSS, finding the right starting point and fitting into existing workflows remains challenging.
The Approach
Instead of designers creating recommendation proposals and waiting for developers to pick them up, this flips the process. FOSS maintainers can propose specific design needs - UX flows, UI cleanup, information architecture improvements, graphic assets, or whatever they need. Since maintainers know what they want to build and can commit to implementing changes, both designer and maintainer can work together to scope what gets delivered and when.
Current Status
This is currently a team-of-one. The plan is to start with one scoped project every quarter,something that can be delivered in 20-40 hours over 1-2 months.
What This Is Not
This isn’t a design agency, marketplace, or paid service.
Contact & Feedback
Designers and maintainers interested in this approach are welcome to get involved or share feedback. This is version 0.01 and will evolve based on what works.